African Americans' Suffrage and Racism

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How did African Americans progress, even when encountering racism, to obtain their voting rights?

Slide 3

“Evolve those ideologies so as to create new ideas and ways of seeing race relations, racism, civil rights, and the condition[s] of black people in the United States” (Burrell 2012)
Racism

Slide 4

Terms:
Racism: racial prejudice or discrimination
One race is superior or greater than the other
Suffrage- the right to vote
Democracy- the practice or principles of social equality

Slide 5

Jim Crow and Segregation
Plessy v. Ferguson (1856) “separate but equal” (Kirk 2009)
All public accommodations (i.e. restrooms, restaurants, fountains, and buses) are segregated
Brown v. Board of Education  desegregation
14th Amendment: It prohibits states from reducing the privileges of citizens and ensures each citizen the 'right to due process and the equal protection of the law'.

Slide 6

NAACP
National Association for Advancement of Colored People
“America’s oldest and largest civil rights group; It’s history is the history of American civil rights in the past century” (Kirk 2009)
Advocated desegregation and voting rights

Slide 7

Civil Rights Act of 1964
End of major forms of discrimination against racial, ethnic, national and religious minorities, and women
Ended unequal application of voter registration requirements
End of racial segregation in schools, at "public accommodations”

Slide 8

15th Amendment
THE RIGHT TO VOTE
Article XV. Section 1. The right of citizens of the United States to vote shall not be denied or abridged by the United States or by any State on account of race, color, or previous condition of servitude—
Ratified February 3rd 1870

“Bloody Sunday” in Selma
Demonstrative march to Montgomery
3,200 marchers left Selma with federal troops guarding them
Promote black voter registration
In response, state troopers became involved

Slide 13

Voting Rights Act of 1965 (VRA)
Lyndon Johnson’s (and his administration) advocacy and effort in the civil rights and in passing the Voting Rights Act as well as its success
Enforced 14th and 15th amendment
“suspended the use of literacy tests and other such devices […] officials were prohibited from changing voting requirements” (Carson)
“now more than 9,000 Black elected officials” (Carson)

Slide 14

“Give us the ballot, and we will no longer have to worry the federal government about our basic rights” – Martin Luther King Jr. (Carson)
“THIS IS SELMA, ALABAMA. THERE ARE MORE NEGROES IN JAIL WITH ME THAN THERE ARE ON VOTING ROLLS” – MLK Jr. (Carson)

Slide 15

VRA Restrictions/Suppression
“The VRA is the basis of three federal lawsuits challenging laws that prevent people with felony convictions from voting” (Shaw and Nelson)
“More than two million minorities with felony convictions are denied the right to vote every election cycle” (Shaw and Nelson)
Provisions were to expired in 2007, however were extended for another 25 years
Section 5, Section 203, Section 6-9

Slide 16

Sections (Shaw and Nelson 2005)
Section 5: “requires federal approval of any voting changes proposed by specifics states and counties that have a history of discrimination before such changes may legally take affect”
Sections 6-9: “permit federal examiners/observers from the Department of Justice to monitor elections when […] needed for assistance”
Section 203: “mandates that language accessible voting materials be provided in areas […] where English proficiency is limited”

Slide 17

“Barack Obama’s election as US president in 2008 [and again, in 2012] points to how fast things have changed in the last 100 years” (Kirk 2009)

Slide 18

Four African American’s Ideologies (Burrell)
On Voting, Racism, Social Justice

Malcolm X
Black Nationalism
separatism and control of politics, and economics within its own community
Violence in achieving black’s objectives
When embracing ballot, rejected violence
““the ballot [was the] most important” weapon that American blacks had in trying to obtain true freedom in America; even more important than money” (Burrell 2009)

Slide 23

George Schuyler
Conservatism
Journalist, social commentator, author
“had to deal with the present society as it was-warts and all-, rather than operate from vantage point of how society ought to be” (Burrell 2009)

Slide 24

“blacks just needed to resign themselves to the fact that white supremacy would always be a part of American culture, that blacks would always have to face racial discrimination […] once we accept the fact there is, and will always be a color caste system in United States […] we can concentrate on how to best survive and prosper within that system [with] what advantages we possess” – Schuyler (Burrell 2009)

Slide 25

“No American citizen- of any color- has the individual right to vote written in the Constitution, compared to the individual rights to Freedom of Speech, freedom of religion and freedom of assembly” (Flowers)
In my opinion, I find out that no matter what race, color or background an person has, he or she should have his or her basic rights—including the right to vote.

Slide 26

“We […] owe it to future generations of African Americans to renew, restore and continue to enforce the Voting Rights Act until we have achieved full political equality” (Shaw and Nelson 2005)
FINALLY,